Agricultural harvesting machines such as self propelled forage harvesters and combines are typically of a self-propelled vehicle construction with a harvesting header that is fastened on the front side of the vehicle on a feeder housing in a detachable way. For transport on a street, the harvesting header is either removed from the feeder housing or brought into a transportation position with reduced width.
In order to be able, to better follow the contours of the ground, many harvesting headers are fastened on the feeder housing so that they can pivot about a horizontal axis extending in the forward direction. This applies especially to combine harvesters, whose wheels can move relative to the running gear in order to always orient the running gear horizontally (see for example European Patent Application EP 1 440 617 A1, considered class-forming). It has also been proposed to construct the harvesting header so that it can move relative to the feeder housing about a horizontal axis extending in the forward direction (see for example German Patent Documents DE 199 49 213 A1 and DE 199 16 645 A1) or to move the harvesting header relative to the feeder housing about the vertical axis (see for example German Patent Documents DE 10 2006 002 053 A1 and DE 10 2005 027 586 A1).
The drive of the driven elements of the harvesting header typically takes place by means of universal joint shafts that extend either perpendicular to the forward direction between an output shaft of the harvesting machine coupled with the lower slope conveyor cylinder and one or both lateral ends of the harvesting header, i.e., essentially perpendicular to the direction of motion (see for example German Patent Document DE 199 18 550 A), or extend in the forward direction. For harvesting headers that are fastened so that they can swing, telescoping universal joint shafts are used If the harvesting header is to be removed from the harvesting machine, first the universal joint shaft must be removed, which is relatively time-intensive because the driver must climb down from his operating position.
Automatic coupling systems are known that automatically establish the drive connection between the harvesting machine and the harvesting header, in that two coupling elements are moved relative to each other (see for example German Patent Documents DE 2 111 227 A1, EP 1884 151 A1, EP 1 985 168 A1, DE 4 412 115 A1), but these coupling systems relate to harvesting headers that are rigidly fastened to the feeder housing. Consequently, they are not suited to harvesting headers that can move relative to the feeder housing.